David Cox of TESS and Mark Rowe of Monster have much in common

In reality they share common traits and have an extensive shared history too.

Both have made money from the same consumers – principally with promises of timeshare relinquishment which do not seem to have been very successful.

Both seek to take the moral high ground, with David Cox using their website to claim that TESS are the good guys and Monster the bad guys – and Mark Rowe using the Timeshare Consumer Association (TCA) website to suggest that they are the good guys and TESS the dubious operator

Both are now ‘inviting consumers to complain about the other so action can be taken

Both are under scrutiny by the authorities

And both have a very similar kind of disingenuous deceit. Mark Rowe Tries to disguise his control over the TCA website – and David Cox does all he can to rewrite history in his telling of the story of how he sold the TCA site to Rowe for a substantial sum. The fact is these two enabled each other to make an awful lot of money on more than one level.

Now both are attempting to make more money from consumers by offering help to claim against their former ally.

Even Stephen Boyd, a qualified solicitor and partner in Manchester based Athena Law is getting dragged into this mess. Boyd is a friend of Cox and has been working with him on a number of projects. That was enough for Mark Rowe to launch attacks on Boyd and Athena Law. Indeed, Athena Law is currently bragging about bringing successful claims against some Monster Travel customers. But there are a couple of problems about this.

Firstly, those very same consumers were hoodwinked in the first place by Monster promising ‘legal assistance’ would be carried out by TESS – so Steven Boyd’s good friend David Cox was a part of the operation that Athena Law are now filing claims against.

Secondly, these claims are being pursued under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. Whilst Athena may very well be offering professional expertise, Section 75 claims can be made free of charge by consumers.

Thirdly, Stephen Boyd actually owned the TCA himself before passing it on to David Cox.

But perhaps most disconcerting is that the disingenuous nature of Cox and Boyd appears to be spreading to this qualified solicitor. On the Athena Law website, Boyd states “Monster Travel either on its own account or acting through agents, has acquired the Timeshare Consumers Association, and is holding itself out as an independent consumer’s organisation when it is not.” The idea that Boyd does not know that after he gave the TCA to David Cox, Cox sold it on to Mark Rowe is preposterous and is another example of the lack of transparency and distortion that are affecting consumers so badly.

All these people claiming the moral high ground whilst being at the very least, economical with the truth brings to mind the words of the esteemed John Milton – “He seemed For dignity compos’d and high exploit: But all was false and hollow.”